In our January issue (#326), I tried to capture the current political period in
Mexico, called the Fourth Transformation or 4T, put in place by the left-winggovernment of Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO). Three months later, it isappropriate to update on several events that shook the country: first by evokingthe violence of the drug cartels against the social movement in general but alsoby talking about the latest mobilizations, and victories (!) that energize apolitical landscape obsessed with the next presidential elections of 2024. ----On January 12, on the coast of Michoacán, three members of the Communal Guard(made up of indigenous people who defend their territory) of Santa María Ostulawere murdered in the vicinity of Aquila, the municipal capital, by hitmen fromthe "Jalisco cartel - new generation". The news is all the more disturbing as thecartel, one of the most powerful in Mexico, has long controlled the region,destroying the environment and displacing villagers to exploit iron mines.Mysteriously, a few days earlier, the National Guard had occupied the village anddisbanded its Communal Guard. To make matters worse, on January 15, two othersocial activists disappeared: lawyer Ricardo Lagunes Gasca and indigenous leaderAntonio Díaz Valencia. Both had taken part in a meeting in the communalauditorium of Aquila, where they had discussed issues related to the iron mine ofLas Encinas, owned by the steel producer Ternium, which itself belongs to theItalian-Argentine group. Techint.One thousand two hundred kilometers further north, in the border town of NuevoLaredo (in the state of Tamaulipas), on February 26, soldiers from theSecretariat of National Defense (Sedena) riddled with bullets, for no apparentreason, a pickup truck driving around the south of the city. Seven people were inthe vehicle, five died, one was injured and another escaped unscathed. They hadno criminal record. Around 100 neighbors then prevented the soldiers from seizingthe van and the soldiers returned fire, endangering other civilian lives. Fivedays later, on Friday March 3, another massacre took place in Matamoros, also inTamaulipas, where four American citizens were kidnapped and two of them killedwithin hours.In one year, from 2022 to 2023, the Mexican army, which is very pampered by the4T government, has gained 11 places in the annual ranking of the most powerfularmies in the world, occupying a significant 31st place out of the 145 countriesstudied. At the beginning of March, however, the military institution was thesubject of a new scandal when the press revealed the existence of a secretstructure, the Military Intelligence Center, which spies on journalists,opponents and human rights defenders. of humans through Pegasus, software createdby the Israeli company NSO Group. Acquired over the past six years, this systemcan hack cell phone information, including messages, files and calls. At thestart of the Obrador mandate, the latter had assured that he would no longer beused in the 4T. Evidence is made to the contrary.The issue of Mexican cartels has become a foreign policy issue, especially sincethe recent trial in the United States of Genaro García Luna, federal police chiefduring Vicente Fox's tenure (2000-2006) and then head of the Ministry of publicsecurity under Felipe Calderón (2006-2012). Once all-powerful, this sinisterfigure was arrested on December 10, 2019 in Dallas, Texas, for complicity withSinaloa Cartel drug traffickers, becoming the highest Mexican official everprosecuted in the United States. On February 21, a jury in Brooklyn, New Yorkfound him guilty of five drug-related crimes, shocking Mexican public opinion.However, the judges glossed over the fact that García Luna was for years atrusted man of the CIA, DEA and FBI, as well as a key player in theimplementation of the Mérida initiative, the cooperation program which, under theguise of combating drug trafficking, enabled the United States to intervene inthe internal affairs of Mexico.In terms of the environment and ecological struggles, in March, the NationalForestry Commission (Conafor) indicated that between 2001 and 2002, the countrylost an average of 208,850 hectares of forest per year. Almost at the same time,on the 12th, the International Tribunal for the Rights of Nature - an independentinstitution that supports people and communities defending the land - demandedthe immediate suspension of the misnamed Tren Maya, the government megaprojectthat runs all over the Yucatan Peninsula but destroys ecosystems and devourscommunity lands. After hearing numerous testimonies on the damage caused to theenvironment and the impact on the culture of the Mayan communities, the Tribunalurged the Mexican authorities to repair the damage and to carry out anindependent audit with the participation of the persons concerned.Any other encouraging news? Few, but they are significant like the great march ofMarch 8, the most important of the last three years which confirms the vitalityof the women's movement. Along with that of teachers, it is the most activesocial movement in the country. An important victory was also achieved in thefight against the mining companies: the ejido of Tecoltémic, a small villagelocated in the municipality of Ixtacamaxtitlán, in the Sierra Norte de Puebla,has once again legally defeated the Canadian company Gorrión, a branch of theCanadian company Almaden Minerals Ltd, which was trying to set up an open-pitmine on its territory. Another important issue is the current corn war betweenthe United States and Mexico over imports of corn and glyphosate, a toxicherbicide banned in several countries. Although the position of the governmentAMLO (initials of President Obrador) is rather lukewarm - it has canceled importauthorizations for genetically modified maize intended for human consumption, butauthorized maize intended for animal feed - an important step towards theestablishment of an autonomous food policy was crossed thanks to social pressureand the many mobilizations that took place on this theme.As the social war wanes and the neo-Zapatistas are conspicuous by their absence -even if they are likely to return to center stage soon - the political scene isdominated by a pathetic electoral farce in view of the presidential elections of2024. On the one hand, the pre-candidates of Morena, the ruling party, arealready campaigning ahead of institutional time, and on the other hand, theopposition is monopolized by an unlikely alliance of old parties corrupt, with nochance of winning. Despite this, on February 26, hundreds of thousands of people- far more than on previous occasions - demonstrated again in Mexico City and inthe provinces against the government's attempt to control the National ElectoralInstitute, a banner which, although brandished opportunistically by the right, isalso the sign of a slow but irreversible erosion of Lopezobradorism.Claudio Albertani, Mexico City, March 2023http://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip.php?article3751_________________________________________A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C EBy, For, and About AnarchistsSend news reports to A-infos-en mailing listA-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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